EPA Reapproves Dicamba Herbicide Despite MAHA Opposition and Court History
EPA Reapproves Dicamba Herbicide Despite MAHA Opposition and Court History
What Happened
On February 6, 2026, the EPA approved three dicamba-based herbicides for over-the-top use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton for two growing seasons. The approved products are:
- Engenia (BASF)
- Stryax (Bayer)
- Tavium (Syngenta)
The decision follows a turbulent regulatory history for dicamba, including federal court bans in 2020 and 2024 that prevented use during the entire 2025 growing season.
What's Changed on the Label
The revised labels include several modifications designed to reduce drift damage to neighboring crops and vegetation:
- Reduced annual spraying amounts — Total dicamba application per acre per year has been lowered
- Increased volatility-reduction agents — Formulations now require more volatility-reducing additives to minimize off-target movement
- Temperature-based restrictions — The previous approach of calendar-based cutoff dates (no spraying after June for soybeans, July for cotton) has been replaced with year-round temperature-based limits
Who Supports It
The American Soybean Association welcomed the decision. President Scott Metzger said farmers need "clear, workable rules that accurately reflect how we farm." Cotton and soybean farmers have advocated strongly for maintaining access to dicamba as a weed management tool, particularly for fields with herbicide-resistant weeds.
Who Opposes It
The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has come out against the reapproval. Zen Honeycutt, co-founder of the MAHA-aligned Moms Across America, criticized the decision as undermining the administration's own platform commitments on children's health and pesticide exposure reduction.
Bill Freese of the Center for Food Safety questioned whether temperature-based restrictions are practical for farmers to follow in real-world conditions and expressed doubt about the effectiveness of volatility-reduction agents.
Critics have also flagged a potential conflict of interest: Kyle Kunkler, the EPA's current deputy assistant administrator for pesticides, previously lobbied for dicamba approval while working at the American Soybean Association.
Legal History
Dicamba's regulatory path has been marked by legal challenges:
- 2020: A federal court overturned dicamba registrations due to inadequate risk assessments
- 2024: Another federal court ban, citing concerns about drift damage to non-target plants
- 2025: No over-the-top dicamba use permitted due to the court ban
- 2026: EPA issues new two-year approval with modified label restrictions
What This Means for Chemical Suppliers
The dicamba reapproval signals that EPA is trying to find a middle ground between agricultural demand for effective herbicides and environmental protection concerns. For companies in the agricultural chemical supply chain, the two-year approval window creates planning certainty — but the ongoing legal and political opposition means the regulatory landscape could shift again.
Chemical suppliers serving the agricultural sector should monitor state-level restrictions that may differ from the federal label requirements, and ensure their Safety Data Sheets and product documentation reflect the current approved formulations.
Alliance's Take
The dicamba story illustrates a broader pattern we see across chemical regulation: scientific uncertainty combined with strong economic interests and political pressure creates an unstable regulatory environment. For chemical suppliers and their customers, the key lesson is to stay current on product documentation and compliance requirements.
While Alliance Chemical's product line focuses on industrial and laboratory chemicals rather than agricultural pesticides, many of our customers in water treatment and environmental services deal with the downstream effects of agricultural chemical use. Understanding what's being applied upstream helps water treatment operators prepare their processes.
Whether you're treating agricultural runoff or working in any regulated chemical application, having the right documentation matters. Alliance Chemical provides complete SDS and COA documentation with every order, and our technical team can help you navigate product selection for any application.
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